Do you trust God, or not?

Do you trust God, or not?

Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother [Joseph]? His blood would give us a guilty conscience. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders.”

— Genesis 37:26

Hand it to Judah. It’s not enough to see his younger brother Joseph thrown into an empty well (a cistern) to be left for dead.” Oh no,” he thinks, “money can be made from this troublesome tattletale! Let’s cash in!

We cash in, too. We fail to see—let alone live out—what God wants for us and from us. When an idea comes on the table that makes our faith take the steering wheel, we cop out on God’s idea faster than it takes Joseph to reach the bottom of that well after he’s been tossed in by his big brothers. Whoa, why stretch it? Why worry? Why work so hard for a gain that, come on now, could be so little?

Church committees need to watch this. A farfetched idea is launched at a meeting. The possibility of something great IS there. But it’s bold or new—or—egad—it’s costly. You hear from fellow committee members that it will take time or work to get others on board. And it might fail. It could fail. And do we really need to spend $1,000.00 bucks on it? Couldn’t we get away with like, $400.00? You know, we might be able to scale this whole big, bold God given idea down to $110.00.

We cash in on God too quickly. We take the safe route too often.

We use human thinking rather than godly direction and voila, just like Judah, we’ve pitched God in the well. Cya. Don’t have time for you. We have other things to do. Safe things. Things that don’t require faith, trust or prayer. No blood on our hands. That’s just too messy.

When we find ourselves selling out God because “Plan B” is easier and makes a whole lot of sense on a spreadsheet (Really? Risk? Yeah, not so much!), we are just like Judah. When we have an option honor God and/or make His love known and opt for another direction, hmmm, what IS that I hear? Another Building For Sale real estate sign being driven into a church’s front lawn?

Quit selling out. Honor God.

He does bless. Oh, does God bless.

LORD: Catch me when I bail out on You. Give me the courage to speak up when others want to take the path that does not honor You. Amen.